Doua articole aparute in revista "Orthodox Canada", Vol. I, noiembrie-decembrie 2006
(Lipsesc numele autorilor articolelor)

[size=3]What would be the implications for Canada, however, if
the monarch of our country was an Orthodox Christian? [/size]

At first glance, most people would say this would make little
difference, in a country who couldn’t care less where His or
Her Majesty might find themselves on Sunday morning.Yet
the inherited experience of the centuries speaks otherwise.
The anointed kings of the Old Testament were not simply
someone who happened to be the king: they were God’s
anointed. The Byzantine emperors carried similar
significance. This is the reason on the walls of
Constantinople in 1453, the death at the hands of Muslim
armies of the last Emperor Constantine Paleologus was a
tragedy of biblical proportions: it was the end not just of a
dynasty, but the kingdom which reflected God’s Rule on
__________________________________________________ _
__________________________________________________ _
2 Vol.1 No.1 - November & December 2006
Like to send
to a friend?
Email us at korzg@hotmail.com
Orthodox Canada

earth. The murders of the Royal Martyrs of Russia in the
twentieth century bore the same significance, signaling the
end of the Third Rome, of Holy Orthodox Russia. Orthodox
rulers have always been viewed by the Church as a sign of
God’s favour toward a country; their deaths have been
interpreted as the act of the Lord removing His protective
hand from an apostate nation.
Canada, like other countries who share the same
sovereign as Britain, has little likelihood of inheriting
such Divine favour - or so it would seem. Yet as our
Queen celebrates decades on the throne, attention
inevitably turns to what the future may hold for the
monarchy. The collective opinion of Charles, The Prince
ofWales, has warmed in recent years, after a decades-long
roller-coaster ride in public opinion. Most Orthodox
Christians, especially those with no personal ties to the
United Kingdom, have paid little attention to the Prince’s
activities, beyond what the mainstream media reports.
This is the very reason the prospect of an Orthodox
Sovereign for Canada has missed most Orthodox.
For many years, The Prince ofWales has been an active
(and contributing) steward of a number of Orthodox
monasteries, including St. Catherine’s on Sinai, and
communities on the Holy Mountain of Athos. Introduced to
these by his Greek Orthodox father, Prince Phillip, Charles
makes regular pilgrimage to both, and is granted privileges
of access reserved not just for Orthodox pilgrims, but only
for Orthodox bishops. Media reports confirm his regular,
private visits to the only Welsh Orthodox priest, in the
priest’s tiny cottage in the northwestern Welsh nationalist
country. His Royal Highness’ love for things Orthodox
extended to the Anglican marriage blessing at Windsor
Castle, at which a Russian singer sang the Nicean Creed - the
original Creed used by the Orthodox, not the Latin version
with the filioque
religion of which Prince Charles would become head upon
his ascension. There are numerous indications that the
Prince also receives the Holy Mysteries of Communion in
the Orthodox Church, from the most strict monastic
communities, which raises the question of whether in fact
Prince Charles is actually Orthodox. Direct inquiries to
those who serve as spokesmen for the Royal Family are met
with demure silence: the royal method of avoiding a positive
response to a complicated question.
If Prince Charles is an Orthodox Christian, what does it
mean for the Church of England, the rapidly declining state
Clause used by the Church of England, the
__________________________________________________ _
__________________________________________________ _
[size=3]An Orthodox monarch has always
represented God’s favour toward a nation.[/size]

religion in a country that boasts better attendance in its
mosques on a given day than in its own pews in a month of
Sundays? His Royal Highness has already expressed
reservations about taking on the role of head of the Church
of England; of course, this is a role an Orthodox Christian
could not accept. He continues to take his own sons (and
heirs) on pilgrimage to Orthodox holy sites, and does so not
in the manner of a royal tourist, but as a regular, humble
pilgrim, traveling by foot, and staying in regular quarters
(with a retinue of bodyguards, to be sure). By God’s
providence, should the day arrive that he assumes the
throne, the implications for Anglicanism may be nothing at
all, if Prince Charles gets his way.
For Orthodox Christians, the prospect of an Orthodox
Christian king - indeed, an Orthodox King of Canada -
should like all things pertaining to the Mind of God, not be
interpreted for their outward meaning, but for their inner,
spiritual significance. For an Orthodox monarch has always
represented God’s favour toward a nation, and perhaps in
this case, it would represent the Lord providing
Commonwealth countries, including Canada, a chance for
repentance and salvation. As the drums of war beat with
increasing ferocity around the globe, perhaps it will even be
our last chance.

Articol nr. 2
[size=3]Canada: Doorway To a New Christian Commonwhealth?[/size]

"They will come from the east and the west, from the norh and from the soud, and sit down in the kingdom of God
- Luke 13:29

Some of us long for the good old days. In the case of some
Orthodox Christians, the “good old days” often take the
form of the Byzantine Empire - the height of Christian life
amoung the Hellenes - or Holy Russia, the age of great
monasteries and spiritual elders. Others may look to other,
smaller Orthodox kingdoms, east or west, such as the
Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Serbs,Anglo-Saxons or Franks.
For nationalists, there is something very comforting in
nostalgia, the sense that the greatness of the past does not
ever really pass away. Yet the earthly reality is quite
different: Holy Russia crumbled into atheistic Communism,
the Byzantines were overrun by Moslem Turks, and most
Greeks and Russians today are not calling for a return of
their Orthodox Emperors. Like everything carnal,
nationalism finds its end in the dust of time - yet unlike
everything carnal, something about these great Orthodox
Empires lives on in the heart of every Orthodox Christian, in
every prayer, in each Divine Liturgy.
What is this essential quality that lives on? It is in fact the
very opposite of the narrow nationalism that characterizes
much Orthodox parish life in North America: it is in fact the
essence of Orthodoxy, which goes beyond culture, which
embraces the whole human race in the historic, Orthodox
Christian Faith, to such an extent that Orthodox Christianity
becomes the culture of an individual or a nation. This was
evident in themultiracial - and multilingual - life of the great
Orthodox Empires. In the case of Russia, it was Orthodox
baptism - not bloodline or ethnicity or language - which
determined citizenship in the Empire. The European Slav,
the Scandinavian, the Asiatic, the Alaskan Aleut - all were
equally citizens of the same Eternal Empire, since all shared
the same baptism. This was the inheritance of Byzantium,
whose genius transformed the pagan Roman idea of
citizenship - loyalty to a false Imperial god - into the only
eternal brotherhood of all those who call God their Father.
Given centuries of politics, wars, and bloodfeuds, it is
remarkable indeed that this sense of eternal citizenship
continues to exist at all amoung Orthodox Christians the
world over to this day.
The age of states made up of a single people or language
is over. Immigration, and the international economy, have
made this a thing of the past. This new reality is sometimes
discouraging and confusing to Orthodox people, who
struggle to find an Orthodox identity in a culturally diverse
world. Yet cultural and linguistic diversity are the very
situations in which Orthodox Christianity has always
flourished. The reason is simple: when the Church is
surrounded by diverse cultures and languages, it is forced to
look outward, to share the Gospel with those around it. This
is the same condition that motivated Saints Cyril and
Methodius to create a new written alphabet to share the
Gospel with pagan Slavs (in their own day, it was as
impossible to imagine Christian Slavs as it would be to
imagine Orthodox Saudis or Iranians today - or Orthodox
Canadians, for that matter). It was the same cultural
diversity, including a complex patchwork of languages, and
ethnic intermarriage, which allowed Saint Innocent and the
other Alaskan missionaries relative ease in spreading the
Orthodox Faith among native Alaskans. Where cultural
diversity and contact was greatest, so often was mission
work.
Where do we find the greatest degree of such cultural
diversity today? We do not need to look very far: it’s in
Canada. And linguistic diversity? Again, the answer is in
Canada. In particular, the city of Toronto allows an
individual to encounter virtually every culture and language
in the world living within a one mile area. Montreal,
Vancouver, and to a lesser extent other Canadian cities,
present a similar picture. This is the same picture that
confronted the missionary saints of past centuries.
What does this mean for Orthodox Christians in Canada?
Regrettably, many Orthodox mourn the loss of their
ancestral tongue, and try to drown their sorrows in the
pursuit of better heritage language and dance programs for
their children and grandchildren. Neither of these has
anything to do with the work of the Church. If we view our
Canadian situation with the eyes of saints like Cyril,
Methodius, Innocent, Gregory the Great, and others, our
best investment in eternity would be time spent in the
heritage language classes of other cultures, such as the
Chinese andArabs, whose numbers swell in Canadian cities,
and whose children fill our public schools. Our funds would
flow toward the translation of liturgical texts, lives of the
saints, and writings of holy elders into Urdu, Mandarin, and
Vietnamese (and for our American neighbours, Spanish,
which accounts for over forty percent of the first language of
all American citizens). French missions deserve special
attention. Canada is blessed with freedom of movement
throughout the largest national landmass in the world, and
the Lord’s providence has preserved us free from war on our
soil since a small group of American troops were driven
back to Niagrara Falls generations ago.


Fie ca Domnul sa-l incoroneze pe ASR Printul Charles si cu cununa Credintei Ortodoxe celei Adevarate!

Doamne, Iisuse Hristoase, Fiul lui Dumnezeu, miluieste-ne pe noi, pacatosii!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Miluieste-ma, Dumnezeule, dupa mare mila Ta si dupa multimea indurarilor Tale curateste toata faradelegea mea". (Psalm 50, 1:2)